Consumers Prefer TV Advertisements

“A combination of video and audio in addition to the message is powerful,” said Rob Albertson, managing director of Bandwidth Marketing (link is external), an agency with clients such as Allstate, Gore-Tex, and GrubHub. “You’ve got a much greater chance of making a connection.”

TV advertisements connect with consumers because they bring a product to life.

TV Advertisements Entertain Consumers

Consumers remember TV advertisements because they are entertaining.

Brands understand the entertainment value of TV advertisements, especially during the Super Bowl.

“TV has a high entertainment value,” said Julie Wierzbicki, account director at Giants & Gentlemen (link is external), an advertising and design agency with clients such as Days Inn, Fisherman’s Friend, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. “Look at the Super Bowl ads. It’s something that people watch for entertainment well after the actual game. These ads have more than just a singular purpose of advertising; they’re meant to entertain us.”

Consumers’ Preferred Digital Advertising is Facebook

Among consumers who identify online or social media as their preferred advertising medium, the most (36%) prefer Facebook advertisements.

Although most consumers prefer TV advertisements, some companies, such as software and app developer MojoTech (link is external), find the most success advertising on Facebook.

“On Facebook, we target customers based on demographic interests like company size and job titles,” said MojoTech Director of Agency Development Brandyn Morelli. “For us, a successful advertisement is about finding the right audience match. I find success by matching our ad audiences to our ideal customer avatars.”

With Facebook, MojoTech can target advertisements toward an audience who is more likely to be interested in the company’s services. These consumers are more likely to respond to an advertisement that is more relevant to them.

“On digital, people are reactive; people search for smartphone repair services, and we appear in the search,” said Digital Marketing Manager Jonathan Alonso. “Being able to win those opportunities via advertising allows us to expand and reach consumers faster. Digital is where we’ve had the most impact for our stores.”

Consumers Dislike Retargeted Advertisements

The fewest number of respondents (2%) prefer retargeted advertisements, or advertisements from a site they recently visited.

People dislike retargeted advertisements because they find them invasive to their privacy.

“People are very suspicious of retargeted ads,” Wierzbicki said. “If you’re Googling ideas for a gift, and an advertisement for a website you just visited comes up, it can be creepy. We’re in the early stages of this, so it makes sense that this would be problematic for some people.”

Retargeted advertisements are newer forms of advertisements, so consumers find them irritating and invasive.

Food and Drink Advertisements Appeal to Basic Human Needs

Consumers prefer advertisements that appeal to their sense of taste.

About 80% of consumers say food and drink/restaurant advertisements are their favorite category of advertising.

Food and drink is a category that appeals to everyone.

“Everyone needs to eat, so the connection is almost a given,” Albertson said. “Plus, the visual aspects in a food advertisement versus almost any other medium targets your taste buds – (like) a gorgeous pizza with cheese dripping.”

For example, many pizza restaurants, such as Pizza Hut, include visuals of a customer pulling a pizza apart with the “cheese dripping.”

A food advertisement like Pizza Hut’s, with visually enticing food, appeals to a consumer’s basic instinct: the need to eat.

Men and Women Display Different Advertisement Preferences

Although both men and women enjoy food and drink advertisements the most, there is a gender divide among other advertising preferences; males prefer technology and sports advertisements, while females prefer fashion/beauty and travel/leisure advertisements.

Consumers like advertisements that appeal to their interests.

“It comes down to their basic interests; the things you’re interested in are the things you like to see advertised,” Albertson said. “Males potentially are less interested in travel, and most of the men I know are not particularly interested in beauty, so their advertising preferences fall in line with that.”

Gender advertising preferences tend to align with gender stereotypes. This alignment, though, may be changing.

“We’ve changed a lot as a society, but gender paradigms are still very strong,” Wierzbicki said. “Things are changing quickly in the present day, and if we were able to take another look at this in just a few years, I think there would be big shift. Maybe the preferences won’t be as stereotypical anymore.”

Because gender stereotypes are becoming less defined, the divide in advertising preferences between genders may not be as extreme in the future.

Some companies create advertisements that appeal to both men and women’s preferences.

This Universal Studios advertisement appeals to both genders’ advertising preferences: travel for females and sports for males.

Technology & Sports Advertisements Appeal to Men’s Sense of Humor

About half of males (49%) say both technology and sports advertisements are among their favorite.

Given these preferences, sports and technology companies tend to create advertisements that appeal more to males.

“Advertisers who see tech or sports as more appropriate or appealing for men will create ads that have (those) elements in them,” said Albertson. “Slapstick humor is funnier to men than it is to women, so that’s what may end up in ads that are assumed to be ‘men-favored’ products, services, or industries. In other words, Super Bowl ads.”

This advertisement is more likely to appeal to men – who make up 55% of the NFL’s viewership (link is external) – because that group is statistically more likely to know about players and recent rule changes. Women, however, are increasingly watching the NFL, so advertisements like this one can appeal to both genders.

Men also prefer technology advertisements.

Because men like technology advertisements, they likely enjoyed Sprint’s Super Bowl advertisement more than women.

The advertisement shows a room of robots making fun of their creator for still using Verizon. The creator switches to Sprint because his “coworkers were making fun of” him – slapstick humor Albertson says males enjoy.

Fashion/Beauty & Travel Advertisements Inspire Women Consumers

“For women, it’s more of ‘That inspires me and speaks to me or that person reminds me of me a little bit,’” said Michael Ancevic, managing partner and chief creative officer of The Fantastical (link is external), an advertising agency with clients such as Samuel Adams, Panera Bread, and TripAdvisor. “They’re passion categories, and a lot of them are passion brands that people feel deeply about and what they’re selling and how it fits organically into their belief systems and lifestyles.”

Fashion and beauty advertisements appeal to women because women are passionate about those subjects and strive to be like the people featured in these advertisements.

Of the more than 10,000 interactions on the Fabletics Facebook advertisement, not a single person put the “angry” or “sad” reaction.

Travel advertisements are also enjoyable to women because they provide an escape from everyday life.

“Good travel and leisure advertisements transport people to a place or a mindset, so there’s a level of aspiration and escape from day-to-day life,” said Ancevic, who also served as the global creative director for the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts brand for 7 years.

The advertisement displays beautiful scenes of Australia and provides the level of escape Ancevic mentioned.

Consumers Prefer Humorous Advertisements

Consumers want to laugh when they see or hear advertisements; more than half (53%) say an advertisement is memorable and enjoyable if it is humorous.

Humor appeals to consumers because it gives them a break from everyday life.

“Humor is just something people like to feel,” Ancevic said. “It’s a bit of a break from other news in the world or the seriousness of life in general. Laughing can create a nice and memorable moment for certain brands, and as an advertiser, it’s sometimes good to be associated with that kind of emotion if done correctly. It’s a tried and true technique.”

In the advertisement, Alexa loses her voice and is replaced by several celebrities, including Gordon Ramsey, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

The advertisement was successful because it “ultimately was fun to discuss and share with those around you,” according to Derek D. Rucker, professor at the Kellogg School of Management.

Another successful example of humorous advertisements is clothing company Shinesty (link is external); the company was founded on humor, so, naturally, its advertisements are humorous.

“From an advertising perspective, we focus on entertaining first and selling second,” Shinesty co-founder and CEO Chris White said. “We’re poking fun at everything in life that is too serious. We take pictures in a way that makes them look like high fashion pictures, but they’re ridiculous products.”

Making people laugh in its advertisements help Shinesty become memorable to potential customers.

Marketing and website development company MSCO (link is external) also uses humor in its advertising strategy with the slogan “Your Marketing Sucks.”

“Your Marketing Sucks” works as the company’s advertising slogan because people remember its humor.

“For more than a decade, the firm has used this pretty simple phrase,” MSCO partner Robert Soniker said. “We pride ourselves on our very memorable and simplified but powerful message. It’s a three-word message that people remember.”

Humorous advertisements don’t have to be complicated; they can be simple and still make an impression on consumers.

Consumers Like Advertisements From Brands They Trust

Consumers also enjoy advertisements from brands they have experience with; 51% say an advertisement is memorable and enjoyable if it is from a brand they know and trust.

Consumers are more drawn to advertisements from brands they trust because they feel more connected to the products advertised.

“When consumers connect with a brand, it builds a bond of trust,” said Meghan Mietus, marketing and business development manager of brand design agency MiresBall (link is external). “They are then more likely to support that brand, engage in communications with the company, and purchase the products and services.”

Trust drives consumers to support a brand and enjoy its advertisements.

For example, Budweiser forewent its typical Clydesdale Super Bowl advertisements in favor of a more emotional advertisement that shows the company providing water to residents in areas of recent natural disasters – Texas, California, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

The advertisement gives the brand a more authentic, responsible feel to it, which is more likely to convert among consumers who like advertisements from trustworthy brands.

Consumers Want to Learn About and Relate to a Product

A successful advertisement relates to consumers and teaches them about the product; consumers dislike advertisements that fail to do so.

About half of consumers say they dislike advertisements because they either didn’t learn anything (51%) or could not relate to the product (48%).

An advertisement needs to be relatable or it won’t connect with consumers.

“What makes an advertisement bad is a lack of a connection,” Albertson said. “If it’s just a mouth piece and there’s no thought behind it, it won’t appeal to consumers. At the core, it needs to be about the viewer’s time, so the more they learn, relate, or, at best, bond with the product, that’s what makes for good marketing.”

For example, Dodge Ram’s 2018 Super Bowl advertisement used a speech from Martin Luther King Jr. to sell cars.

Preferences Shape How Consumers Engage With Advertisements

Advertisements appeal to consumers’ emotions and senses; they have the power to make consumers laugh, crave food, or want to see the world. Advertisements connect with consumers.

Every consumer’s taste in advertising is different. If done correctly, an advertisement can successfully appeal to its target audience, which, in turn, will lead to a purchase and repeat, happy customers.

About the Survey

Clutch surveyed 1,030 consumers in the United States who have seen or heard an advertisement in the past week.

About 45% of respondents are male; 55% are female.

About 28% of respondents are aged 18 to 34, 40% are 35 to 54, and 32% are 55 and older.

Nearly half of respondents (47%) have a household income of less than $49,999, 36% $50,000 to $99,999, and 17% over $100,000.